BACKGROUND: Juvenile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (CLN3 disease) is a hereditary progressive neurodegenerative disease well documented among Caucasians, but such clinical data and genetic characterization is lacking among Asian populations.
METHODS: A 13-year-old Chinese girl presented for diagnostic evaluation with retinitis pigmentosa, generalised tonic-clonic seizure and cerebellar ataxia. Electron microscopy of whole blood and skin biopsy, and mutation analysis of CLN3 gene with genomic DNA and cDNA, were performed.
RESULTS: Electron microscopy showed vacuolated lymphocytes, and characteristic patterns in eccrine glands suggestive of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. Sequencing of genomic DNA showed homozygous splice site variant NM_000086.2(CLN3):c.906+6T>G, and the pathogenicity of which was confirmed by cDNA sequencing to demonstrate the deletion of a transmembrane domain of the CLN3 protein. The mutant protein was predicted to adversely affect ligand binding of CLN3 as a lysosomal membrane protein.
CONCLUSIONS: Here we report the first genetically confirmed CLN3 disease in Chinese, with a novel splice site variant with proposed pathogenetic mechanism relating gene and protein, and highlights the potential ethnic differences in the mutation spectrum. We wish to establish the importance of clinical awareness and laboratory diagnosis of CLN3 disease, especially in the promising age of gene therapy.